Great Things, Go and Follow, Wonderful Cross, Take My Life, Worthy of It All

When was the last time you volunteered to help meet someone else’s need? What motivated you?

Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

What is a volunteer? To volunteer means to offer one’s time, skills, or services willingly and without payment, driven by personal commitment or desire to contribute. The opposite of volunteering is to be compelled or required to perform a task, often with compensation or under obligation. Deuteronomy 28:47-48 reminds us that we are to “serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart…”, so as part of God’s church, VOLUNTEER: SERVE GOD JOYFULLY!

We practice a different kind of volunteerism:

To volunteer is for our own good. Research have shown that if you volunteer to serve and help others, you gain better health, you are more joyful, etc. Jesus emphasizes that if we want happiness for eternity, we are to serve God. Jesus called us to be servants (Matthew 20:26-27), and He modeled it, as “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…” – Jesus is the ultimate example of servanthood! We should always think about how we can be a blessing to others. Dr. Karl Menninger, a world-renowned psychiatrist, advised people to “find someone in need and do something for that person”. By helping others, you can help yourself!

We serve God because we are called to freedom (Galatians 5:13); we use that freedom to serve one another. People have different reasons for not serving: lack of time, lack of talent, lack of opportunity, disappointed with leaders, ignorance, and ultimately, a lack of “heart”. We need to know our priorities, if something is important, we make time for it! How do we serve God joyfully?

Romans 12:1 begins with “THEREFORE” and points us to the “mercies of God” as the reason to worship God. The previous chapters in the book of Romans present a systematic explanation of what God has done by GRACE: Man’s Sinfulness (Romans 1-3), God’s Salvation (Romans 3-5), God’s Sanctification (Romans 6-8), God’s Sovereignty (Romans 9-11), and Man’s Response (Romans 12-15). Grace (God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense) is undeserved favor, unmerited, unconditional, uncoerced, freely given by God, and paid for by Jesus. We should know that we are recipients of God’s grace so that we would want to serve Him and volunteer. The reason why we serve God is not because we are obligated, but because we love Him so much. He gave us grace, forgiveness, mercy, and we recognize that the key to understand service is to understand God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-10). The response to this amazing grace is good works, the evidence of salvation – because we have been saved by grace, we do good works as part of God’s plan for our lives. It is not the means for our salvation.

We don’t do good works to earn points for heaven! “Good works are indispensable to salvation – not as its grounds or means, however, but as its consequence and evidence” – John Stott.

Presenting our bodies as living and holy sacrifice to God is our “spiritual service” (Gk. Logizomai, logical, reasonable) to Him (Romans 12:1). It’s plain and simple – we give our all to God! This is our gratitude to God – the attitude of appreciation and thankfulness for the good and benefits we have received. Gratitude leads to action. C.T. Studd once said, “If Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him”. Many people are committed to serve, but they are not surrendered. We need to surrender to God in our gratitude and worship. We have been crucified with Christ, so it is “no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). We are to learn to surrender our all to the Lord, whatever God wants us to do, we say “yes” to Him.

Transformation cannot happen if the mind is not transformed (Romans 12:2). We are to stop copying the world; we choose to allow God instead to transform and change us to give our mind better perspectives. This will happen if we input truth from the Word of God and allow it to change the way we think and behave. 1 John 2:15-16 reminds us to move away from the ways of the world (lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, boastful pride of life). We need to read the Bible, and the Spirit of God will make it real in our lives. That’s how we are transformed! We are also empowered to understand the will of God which is “good, acceptable, and perfect”. The choice is clear! If we are grateful to God for His grace, we will be willing to submit to His means and ways and serve Him with all our hearts.

Romans 12:3-8 discusses what was given to us by God to allow us to serve Him. He gave us grace, faith, and all that is needed to serve God. He has given us different functions to work together as one body. We are to help one another, as a church, and serve one another. The church is the body of Christ; every part is important. We are given to one another to help one another. Verses 6-8 encourages us to use the gifts to serve others (see 1 Peter 4:10 also). When you see a need, step out, volunteer and serve! 1 Peter 2:9 calls us “a royal priesthood”, with the duty to “proclaim the excellencies of Him”. We are all called to serve God! Peter wrote further telling us that each one of us received a special gift, and we are all to serve as a good steward of the grace of God. We volunteer with our time, talent, treasure, influence, and we can even use the trials and sufferings we face to be able to help others see Christ in us even in the most difficult of times.

May we all choose to do all the good we can, for God’s greater glory, honor, and praise!

How does the grace of God become a solid reason for us to serve?

How do you express your gratitude to God through volunteering and serving?

What have you been gifted with that allows you to be a blessing to others?

Pray for the Lord to meet the needs of people in your life.

Volunteer your time, talent and treasure to the Lord and willingly help others in whatever way you can this week.

Joyfully volunteer to share the gospel to others this week through your words and good works.

• Worship God for who He is, what He has done, and what He will do in our lives.

• Upright and moral governance of public servants; repentance and salvation for government leaders and citizens for a Christ-centered Philippines.

• God’s help and comfort for the Sudanese people caught in violence and conflict.

• War in Ukraine to end, loss of lives prevented; tension in East Asian and Middle East
countries to stop.

• Continue to pray for the rest of Israeli hostages to be restored back to their families safely. Pray for Israel and the war with terrorists to end according to God’s purpose and for His glory.

• For the recent political and social upheaval in the US to result in spiritual awakening in the church and a great spiritual harvest.

• That CCF Members would honor and love God and make disciples.

• Elders, pastors, dleaders, and families (holy, humble, harmonious, happy, heart-working).

• Ministries and churches expansion worldwide.

• Worship and Training Center

• Prayer Mountain

• Deeper intimate relationship with God.

• Righteous living.

• Salvation of family and friends.

As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.